Top Spot of the Week: Publicis Italia, Barilla, Sophia Loren Salute The Spirit Of Italy

The Barilla Group continues to be by Italy’s side: following donations to support the COVID-19 emergency, the company also wanted to express its closeness and gratitude to #italiacheresiste (#resilientitaly), through an emotional video that is now airing on the country’s main national TV stations. It is a special message of sincere gratitude, on behalf of the company, to all those who are contributing to keeping the country going in a time of difficulty. 

Barilla wanted to express an immense “Thank You” through a special commercial that uses words born from the collaboration with Holden Studios, the creative laboratory of the most authoritative writing and storytelling school in Italy: the Holden School. 

The voice of the commercial has been entrusted to Sophia Loren, an icon that embodies the Italian spirit, its beauty, its excellence, the desire to do and to be able to help. A project in which the actress--sharing the spirit and the message--said she would immediately get involved in a completely pro bono way in order to convey through her distinctive voice her closeness and sincere affection for Italy and its people during this difficult and delicate time. 

The video message, created in collaboration with the agency Publicis Italia (Publicis Italy), intertwines the musical notes of Vangelis, rearranged for the orchestra--one of the most famous and beloved songs related to Barilla--with images of Italy’s beautiful land and its people.

Barilla has donated a total of over 2 million euros to the Maggiore Hospital of Parma, the Civil Protection and the Parma Red Cross. The most important donation concerns the Maggiore Hospital of Parma and will allow a significant improvement of the equipment and functionality of the Intensive Care Unit in dealing with the current health emergency caused by the spread of COVID-19.

The second contribution from the Alimenta Foundation, established by Barilla in 2009, will specifically assist the Civil Protection and the Parma Red Cross and relates to a series of medical devices and logistical equipment necessary to face this particularly critical moment that the territories of Parma and Cremona are experiencing.